Jane Monheit loves L.A. and the Catalina Jazz Club, and that’s no snow job

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Ordinarily, neither wind, sleet nor snow could prevent Jane Monheit from showing up for a scheduled concert. But the monster blizzard that blasted New York, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and other parts of the United States over the holidays was no middling cold front.

So, like tens of thousands of other would-be travelers, the 33-year-old jazz singer has spent the last few days trying to book a flight out of the New York area. She was supposed to play an extended gig, starting Tuesday night, at the Catalina Jazz Club but had to cancel the first of her scheduled performances there -- an experience that, she said, was as disappointing as it was unprecedented for her and her trio.

‘We’ve played that club as much as we’ve played any club in the world,’ she said Tuesday, speaking by cellphone from an intreprid SUV bearing Monheit and several family members on a grocery-shopping expedition, their first since being snowed in on Christmas Eve at her parents’ Long Island home.

‘It’s the jazz club in L.A.,’ she continued. ‘Has been for years. A lot of great singers have come through there.’ As for Los Angeles, Monheit said, it’s ‘really a second home in a lot of ways.’

Read more on Monheit’s thoughts about L.A.’s jazz scene and her latest album, ‘Home.’ And if you’re a jazz aficionado, keep your fingers crossed that the dodgy weather descending on L.A. this week doesn’t once again put a damper on Monheit’s travel plans.

-- Reed Johnson